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mODERNIST STUDIES 
IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 



V O, MILLER 



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MODERNIST STUDIES 
IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 



BY 
RAY OAKLEY MILLER 




BOSTON 

SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1917 






(J.J8 



copybight, 1917 
Shermak, French & Compahy 



©CI.A479127 

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TO 

MY MOTHER 

A FREE AND SURE BELIEVER 



INTRODUCTION 

This little book is published only as a point 
of view. But " the point of view " is to the 
author's mind everything. What he does claim 
is that the point of view herein put forth is the 
point of view that men are more and more 
likely to take with reference to any study of 
the life of Jesus. Rational and scientific tests 
are being applied to every domain of study ; 
and by the word " Modernist " the author sim- 
ply means a use of those tests in religious 
thinking, not, he hopes, without a genuine 
sympathy for, and an appreciation and ap- 
propriation of, the fundamental elements of 
idealism and faith. 

He dares even hope that such an attitude 
will make of the religion of Jesus a more vital 
(if radical), forward-moving, and comprehen- 
sive force in the advancement of humanity. 
He sincerely believes that such an attitude is in 
keeping with the wish of him who said, " Ye 
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
you free." 

And, because he believes this, he thinks that 



INTRODUCTION 

the religion of Jesus offers a more tremendous 
challenge and demands a more vital allegiance 
than any yet given. The way-out for human- 
ity is to be found in maximums rather than 
minimums. It lies in the direction of progress. 
Its method would be as abrupt as love and 
righteousness. It would, perchance, have about 
it something of the pangs of being born, but 
such things would be mere incidents in a life, 
divine m its very essence and eternal in its first 
conscious assumptions. 

Ray Oakley Miller. 



PREFATORY 
AN AGE OF FAITH 

Perhaps never before were thinking people so 
intent upon finding the basic principles of their 
religion. It is not a question of some specific 
dogma, or indeed of any dogma. What we are 
finding out is that the Church was never so 
weak ethically, socially, and spiritually as when 
her dogmas were strongest — in the Middle 
Ages. She was never so strong, nor so vital, 
a factor in the forward-moving processes of 
civilization as today, when her dogmas are 
honey-combed with analysis, modernism, and 
variation. 

This is an age of Faith. We sometimes hear 
the Middle Ages referred to as " Ages of 
Faith." They were not at all. They were 
ages of unf aith, ages of dogma, when every- 
thing was fixed, static, divinely appointed. Our 
age is an age of Faith. It believes things. It 
believes in doing things. It tries out its faith. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Problem ........ 1 

The Wanderlust 3 

II Transient Elements in the Life of 

Jesus 4 

Sins of Omission 11 

III Permanent Elements in the Life of 

Jesus 12 

The Voluntary Basis of Religion . 20 

IV Jesus and Authority 21 

Pitfalls 30 

V Jesus as the Fulfiller . . . .31 

God Personal 40 

VI Jesus and the Religion of Tomorrow 41 

A Liberal Faith 52 



CHAPTER I 
THE PROBLEM 

To some the Christian life is simply imita- 
tive. There were no elements of a transient 
nature in Jesus, nor is any event in his life, 
however insignificant, to be slurred over. The 
incident of feet-washing is as permanent as 
baptism; the apocalyptic visions are as valua- 
ble as the Sermon on the Mount ; and incidental 
expressions about the cosmogony of the uni- 
verse are just as binding as the immortality of 
the soul. If we pick up certain books on the- 
ology, or popular sermons, there is in them all 
an evident " trekking " of the Bible and the life 
of Jesus. To all such the very mention of our 
subject borders on blasphemy; even the "hem 
of his garment " is sacred and permanent. 

There are others who find the very reality 
and permanency of the religion of Jesus in the 
fact that they are mixed up with other things 
patently transient and even superficial. In- 
deed, the whole effect of Modernism has been 
concerned in distinguishing between these two 
elements in the life of Jesus, and in fitting these 



2 MODERNIST STUDIES 

permanent elements into the warp and woof of 
our present age. In the main, I think, the 
effort has been reverent and sincere, and the 
outcome fruitful. Religion has become less 
antique and more efficient, less traditional and 
more ethical, less burdened with mechanical 
theories and more dynamic. However, that 
depends, too ! Let us begin with the transient 
elements. 



THE WANDERLUST 

The Germans have a word for those who are 
never able to be satisfied — wanderlust. And 
in a real sense, of course, we should all be taken 
up with the wanderlust of life. Man's is the 
eternal struggle. He it is who never yet has 
found the end of the rainbow. 

The restlessness of life is life, 

The heritage of every soul. 
'Tis this that differentiates 

A man from beast — 
The ceaseless struggle for a goal. 

But in another sense this wanderlust is both 
wrong and foolish. Just to wander for the 
sake of going, to imagine that all we are doing 
here today is dross, and that somewhere to- 
morrow, in some new luxury, in some new work, 
at the end of the rainbow, is to be found what 
we seek, is both futile and foolish. Drop down 
your buckets where you are, good friend ; drink 
the refreshing waters of home and love and 
work; for the day will surely come to all of us 
when that which once seemed commonplace will 
be found amongst the most valued treasures of 
life. 

3 



CHAPTER II 

THE TRANSIENT ELEMENTS IN THE 
LIFE OF JESUS 

There are his language and his dress. Who 
knows in what language Jesus spoke? Some 
think it was Greek, others Aramaic. But what 
does it matter? Greek has lately been abol- 
ished from the necessary credits of the Uni- 
versity of California. It was almost the last 
of the great universities to take this step. 
And yet it has been pointed out that at this 
very moment Greek culture was never so com- 
mon. Our children learn the Greek myths as 
nursery stories, and read large portions of the 
noted Greek authors in grammar grades and 
in the high schools. The spirit of Greek is 
here, and nobody cares about the language as 
such. It is so with the language Jesus spoke. 
We can all agree upon this point — if no fur- 
ther. 

When we move on to the matter of dress, it 
is not quite so evident a thing. Our ignorance 
keeps us from making the language of Jesus a 
permanent element in his religion, but a general 
knowledge of oriental dress has permitted us to 



MODERNIST STUDIES 5 

stress this point to some extent ; and there are 
Christian bodies to whom the supposed sim- 
plicity of the dress of Jesus is important, if not 
categorical. And there are great bodies of 
Christians to whom a certain kind of dress is 
religious and another secular. 

Moving up a step farther, we come to those 
notions of the physical world — what we would 
call the scientific ideas of his day — presum- 
ably accepted by Jesus. Are we bound to 
accept as an integral part of our religion the 
cosmogony of the Jews — their ideas of nat- 
ural laws, the " four corners of the earth," 
etc. ? Of course this comes very close to things 
intimately connected with the early records of 
Christianity — miracles, supernatural voices, 
ecstatic visions, as well as the flatness of the 
earth, and the astronomical observations of 
the Jews. 

It is apparent, I think, that Jesus need not 
be loaded too heavily with this supposed phase 
of religion. Indeed, it seems necessary that if 
he was to speak to his age, he must speak in its 
language, through its symbols, and through its 
natural knowledge, however imperfect that 
knowledge was. Some advance the hypothesis 
that Jesus knew everything, but did not care to 
interfere with incidental things, leaving their 
development to natural processes. This, how- 
ever, seems a little mechanical. There is noth- 



6 MODERNIST STUDIES 

ing in the words of Jesus to show that he knew 
any better, nor was it necessary. Spiritual 
truth does not depend upon any set of develop- 
ing human ideas ; it does depend for its propa- 
gation in each age upon the knowledge of that 
age. And while Jesus spoke in that age ac- 
cording to the cosmogony of the Jews, with its 
imperfect perceptions, if he were here today, he 
would speak according to evolution and intui- 
tion. 

Almost any one of the miraculous stories 
would illustrate our point. There is the out- 
standing one of Jesus eating fish with his disci- 
ples after the resurrection. The absolute 
physical demonstration seemed necessary to the 
Jews, and, being weak in psychology, they 
somehow came into the conception that it was 
so. It is not often we ministers preach on this 
incident, I think, nor does it form any part of 
our usual consciousness. The feeding of the 
five thousand is usually interpreted spiritually, 
with a gloss for the miracle itself. And it is 
with a great deal of relief that most of us be- 
lieve the Jewish cosmogony to be transient in 
the life of Jesus. 

Then there were in Jesus ideas peculiar to 
Jewish thought. Here we run into difficult 
matters — the very heart of things — where it 
is imperative that we discern carefully. " My 
words, they are spirit and they are life," said 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 7 

Jesus in many different ways. And we all be- 
lieve that, only we are anxious to know what 
are his own words first, and then what he 
meant by words — the shell and symbol of his 
thought, or his ideas, essential and imperative. 

A good deal of modern criticism has been en- 
gaged in showing that the records have been 
edited (which is probably true) and that cer- 
tain ideas attributed to Jesus were not really 
held by him. That is a world of study in it- 
self. A great part of this, it seems to me, has 
been pursued upon an a priori basis — to do 
away with some of these very Jewish ideas. 
We are always fearful of such methods as go- 
ing too far and being too arbitrary. 

There seems to be no reasonable doubt that 
Jesus used these Jewish ideas, as he used the 
Jewish cosmogony, as indigenous and neces- 
sary in speaking an understandable message. 
That, however, is quite another thing from 
binding them upon all succeeding ages. 

The apocalyptic passages have been espe- 
cially trying. Whenever a great war has 
come, literalistic Christians have seen in it the 
presaged end of the world. There are men in 
nearly every city of the world who have been 
devoting weeks to this very proposition, get- 
ting people ready quickly for the approaching 
end of the world ! Even Cardinal Gibbons uses 
this historic passage to edify his flock! And 



8 MODERNIST STUDIES 

he has good precedents: St. Paul thought the 
same thing, and in the canonical scriptures 
from him we are told that the end of the world 
would come while some then living were still 
upon the earth. St. Paul's rabbinical training 
prepared his mind for apocalyptic receptivity, 
but for the rest of us that ground of excuse 
is not tenable. 

The idea of judgment with the Jew was in- 
eradicably wrapped up with the apocalyptic 
idea. Any message that would come to him 
with force must come in that direction. Judg- 
ment is testified to in many ways in different 
times. The fact itself is not less stressed to- 
day, but comes along more reasonable and evo- 
lutionary lines. The solution lies in that direc- 
tion, and we may regard Jesus with no less 
reverence because he did what was the only sen- 
sible thing to do — used the prevailing apoca- 
lyptic notions for his own purposes. 

A little lower in the scale come the less de- 
veloped Jewish ideas, such as belief in devils. 
The Gadarene pigs are a good example of this. 
The psychological devils which came out of this 
man had, according to popular notions, to go 
somewhere else! And what more happy than 
this wild herd of pigs running pellmell into the 
water ! 

The same thing proves true even of messian- 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 9 

ism, though we have not time to go into that. 
In each case we are helped immensely by the 
fact that, while using these popular theologies, 
Jesus himself modified them with an exceedingly 
free hand, hewing them to spiritual ends. 

Nor are his uses of canonical Scriptures less 
traditional on the one hand and less drastic on 
the other. His application of prophecy to 
himself is the most eclectic thing imaginable. 
It was so transformed that its originators, the 
Jews, did not recognize it, or recognize it as 
anything more than duplicity. 

I want to mention just one other transient 
phase of the life of Jesus — his partisan ap- 
peal. His whole message in its original form 
is to the Jews. " Give not that which is holy 
unto the dogs." Or again, " Go ye not into 
the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of 
the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather 
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." " Go 
ye into all the world " is bounded thus, " Je- 
rusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the 
world" (a provincial view at most). This 
partisan spirit holds over in St. Peter, and is 
broken only by the essential spirit of Chris- 
tianity in St. Paul, against the traditional con- 
ceptions of both St. Peter and St. James in the 
First Council at Jerusalem. 

There can be no doubt that Jesus adapted 



10 MODERNIST STUDIES 

his message, as his life, to the Jews, leaving 
the leaven itself to break forth into the univer- 
salism of a world-religion. 

There are other transient elements in the life 
of Jesus, of course, but these represent the 
leading principle. 



SINS OF OMISSION 

It is comparatively easy to see the effect of 
things we do ; it is far more difficult to discern 
the influence of the things we fail to do. Yet 
the latter perhaps have more to do with the 
making or unmaking of our lives than the for- 
mer. It is quite natural to worry over, and 
repent of, actual sins committed; it is much 
harder to make up for the things we have sim- 
ply left undone. Yet the latter are often more 
accursed sources of pain than the former. It 
is natural to say, " I hope I shall do no great 
sin tomorrow " ; it is far worthier to say, " I 
hope I shall leave no worthy thing undone to- 



" Count that day lost, whose low descending sun 
Sees from thy hand no worthy action done." 



11 



CHAPTER III 

THE PERMANENT ELEMENTS IN THE 
LIFE OF JESUS 

We turn now to the permanent elements. 
They are evident, strategic, and inspiring, 
scarcely needing any great amount of elucida- 
tion. He whose life has caught up to himself 
the great heart of the world has an intrinsic 
appeal like the morning light, which needs only 
to be seen to be appreciated. 

First of all is his plan of placing the intui- 
tive principle above the rationalistic. He is 
almost Bergsonian in this. That is his posi- 
tion about God. There is no single argument 
in all his life to prove that there is a God. It 
was to him an intuition and a manifestation. 
All we needed to do was to " lift up our eyes 
unto the hills." " He that hath ears to hear, 
let him hear," and similar expressions were 
ever upon his lips as a final thrust. He would 
not even use his miracles to prove the existence 
of God, answering a request for proof by say- 
ing that an " evil and adulterous generation 
seeketh after a sign." In other words, if the 
sign was not already here in the instinctive, 
intuitive processes of life, no miracle could ever 
12 



MODERNIST STUDIES 13 

impress the fact. This is intuition versus 
rationalism. 

That was his position, also, about himself. 
When pushed for the source of his claims, he 
always fell back upon intrinsic things in him- 
self and the ability of others to see and under- 
stand. At the cleansing of the Temple, when 
the priests asked by what authority he did 
these things, he answered by testing their 
power to sense divine things : " The baptism 
of John, was it of men or of God? " If they 
said of men, then the people would be against 
them, for all men knew (instinctively) that 
John was a prophet of God. If they said of 
God, then Jesus would say, " Why did ye not 
believe him? " And they answered Jesus and 
said, " We cannot tell." And he answered and 
said unto them, " Neither tell I you by what 
authority I do these things." Here we find the 
intuitive process, based upon moral insight, as 
over against legalized rationalism. 

Upon another occasion they ask him, 
" Where is thy Father? " and Jesus replies in 
the same spirit, " If ye had known me, ye 
would have known my Father also." Or 
again, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
them, and they will follow me " ; " If any man 
will (or will to do) do his will, he shall know 
of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or 
whether I speak of myself." 



14 MODERNIST STUDIES 

By placing the intuitive above the rational, 
Jesus does not thereby ignore the rational. 
Again and again he disconcerts the leaders 
with his apt replies, his careful knowledge of 
detail, and his overwhelming processes of mind. 
" Never man spake like this man," or " Whence 
hath this man knowledge, never having learned 
his letters?" were the astonished rejoinders of 
worsted antagonists. What he does do is to 
plant his feet firmly upon the eternal verities, 
which may be discerned only spiritually, and 
from this vantage ground, supported by reason 
and love, walk the earth, the victor over death 
and the grave, to whose soul the transient was 
lost in the permanent, and even vicissitudes 
were only incidental and could be made to con- 
tribute to glory and victory. 

Closely linked with these fundamental tenets 
was his doctrine of the fatherhood and conse- 
quent personality of God. With Jesus this 
was pivotal. Personality was to him, not 
the maximum, but the minimum. Breaking 
through his words many times are concepts of 
God in terms of cosmos, but always gathering 
into itself the valued attributes of self-con- 
sciousness and self-determination, the hopes 
and loves and realities of many years. The 
thin ice of immanence and pantheism are every- 
where skirted with a dexterity which is the soul 
of truth and simplicity. 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 15 

It is never the Great-soul or Over-soul. It 
is always God is love, but never Love is God. 
God is a spirit, the last word about God, yet 
a spirit endowed with love — active, knowing, 
personal. He and the Father are one; yet he 
is still the Son, and God the Father — both 
personal. The Holy Ghost is raised out of 
the pantheism of olden times, and is sent, a 
personal representative of the Son and the 
Father, into the hearts of men. With Jesus, 
the fatherhood is fatherhood, lost in neither 
immanence, pantheism, nor transcendentalism; 
rather comprehending them all in its own satis- 
fying personal relationships. So much for 
this well-known phase of the life of Jesus. 

Standing on the same fundamental ground 
is the doctrine and fact of atoning love. In 
the older prophets, from Amos on down, there 
was plenty of justice. Righteousness was de- 
manded of the people. Jesus demanded justice 
for himself only on the basis of affection and 
intrinsic things. He drew others to secure 
justice for themselves according to the same 
great principle, until at last the great appeal 
was, " The love of Christ constraineth us." 
The greatest good was to be secured by deny- 
ing one's self and taking up his cross. Not a 
denial of large expression of life and personal- 
ity, but a holding in abeyance of one's rights 
in order to secure them through service and 



16 MODERNIST STUDIES 

love. Self-immolation, unknown in inanimate 
life, repugnant when exercised without pur- 
poses of a lofty nature, and seldom appearing 
in early reflective humanity, rises to its height 
in Jesus. In a moment of fanaticism the sol- 
dier or martyr gives his life, perchance for an 
imaginary good. Erasmus was perhaps wise 
when he said, " I have no vocation for martyr- 
dom." Martyrdom has its glories, but its 
pages are ofttimes pitiful. It is almost incon- 
ceivable how men could have died for some of 
the things for which they gave their lives. 

The death of Jesus was more than martyr- 
dom. It was an atonement, an at-one-ment. 
Clear and definite were the purposes which ac- 
tuated his whole life. It was not difficult for 
him to see the cross looming up before him. 
His ideals were as inexorable as life, and God 
must give his expression of vicarious love. 
The world must be anchored. It must be over- 
whelmed by the great goodness and love of God, 
as well as by his righteousness and justice. 
Self-immolation, so repulsive in most instances, 
becomes in Jesus the atonement — moral, just, 
personal. 

It is said that Mr. Lincoln had great trouble 
with the atonement until he stood on the battle- 
field of Gettysburg. The men there had given 
themselves for others with a moral purview. 
Their sacrifice does give a glimpse of the vi- 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 17 

carious sufferings of Jesus, but only a glimpse. 
Most of these men were mere youths, who had 
gone to war for many reasons, with little 
thought of sure death. A portion of them 
were drafted. Jesus went forth to die clear- 
sighted, definitely purposeful, alone, meeting the 
whole matter with full consciousness and de- 
termination. He gave himself a ransom for 
many. Modern life and modern scholarship 
understand with fuller import the meaning of 
the atonement, with love first and justice after- 
ward. It is a sure and abiding element in the 
life of Jesus, as it must always be in the life 
of the world. 

Definitely related to this is the message of 
the brotherhood of man. The worth of human 
life is exalted, and individualism pushed for- 
ward by relationships based on personality, 
affection, hope, justice, righteousness : " If 
God so clothe the grass, which today is in the 
field and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will 
he not much more clothe you, O ye of little 
faith ! " " Greater love hath no man than 
this, that he will lay down his life for another." 

Like every other great consumer of energy, 
brotherhood needs a dynamo. In this great 
day of social effort, of institutionalism, the 
natural store of human kindness is quickly ex- 
hausted. The need is felt for a great supply 
for new effort glimpsed ahead. Human kind- 



18 MODERNIST STUDIES 

ness has its limitations, and we need what is to 
be found in the exhaustless life of Jesus. " If 
any man say that he love God and hate his 
brother, he is a liar," is the incontrovertible 
dictum of Jesus. 

Mention must also be made of the immortal- 
ity of the soul. With Jesus it is based upon 
the very necessities of life — the life of the 
Father and the life of the individual. Like the 
idea of God, it, too, is intuitive and instinctive, 
needing no argument or logical demonstration. 
It is as natural as breathing air, or approp- 
riating sunlight. " This is eternal life, to 
know thee, the only true God." It is shrouded 
in no mystery, nor even in the half-knowledge 
of St. Paul (" Now Ave know in part.") It is 
a definite, self-conscious, forward-moving en- 
tity : " In my Father's house are many man- 
sions " — a Father indeed, and a son indeed. 
" We are the sons of God, and it does not yet 
appear what we shall be," says St. John. 
These are the things that make immortality 
worth while — a robust, confident, personal 
immortality. 

And growing out of these comes the message 
of responsibility and judgment. Jesus says 
that he does not come to judge; and he does 
not, primarily. But close knit with the whole 
structure of his redemption is the awfulness of 
sin, the terrible consequence of spurning the 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 19 

love of God, redeeming in its very essence. 
Individualism, personality, entity — all imply 
responsibility. Fatalism vanishes from the 
Christian consciousness as night before the 
sun. The Christian is neither stoic nor epi- 
curean, but a responsive, participating, respon- 
sible, rational being, rooted in the life of the 
universe and God. 

Last of all, as well as greatest of all, is the 
personality of Jesus himself. Back of all his 
humanity, and shining through all his tran- 
sient modes of expression, is his own 
unique, enchanting, overwhelming individual- 
ity. Renan was right when he said, " If the 
life and death of Socrates was that of a phil- 
osopher, the life and death of Jesus of 
Nazareth was that of a God." His own assur- 
ance, linked with the rest of his life, is the 
world's greatest source of hope. His witness 
of himself is true. In him humanity and divin- 
ity meet and we reverently say, " Ecce Homo! 
Ecce Deus! " 



THE VOLUNTARY BASIS OF RELIGION 

The only things that count for much are 
the things we love. The only thing that can 
sanctify marriage is love — an abiding love. 
The only thing that can make a man success- 
ful in his profession is to be consumed by an 
affectionate interest in it. Business men are 
successful only when they love their business as 
they love their meals. And what is true about 
everything else in the world is true about re- 
ligion. It has its reality in the voluntary 
basis of life, where affection simply bubbles 
over, and faith, like laughter, fills the air. 
Early Christianity was an almost voluptuous 
overflowing of pure and unadulterated human 
affection. It is something in which there can 
be no thought of barter, of penalty, of cus- 
tom; it is in every sense its own justification, 
and comes very near what M. Aurelius called 
" pure cussedness " in the early martyrs who 
refused to recant, going joyously to death. 



20 



CHAPTER IV 
JESUS AND AUTHORITY 

" God, who at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, 
hath in these latter days spoken unto us by his son." 

In one sense every good doctrine is neces- 
sary in the religion of Jesus ; in another sense 
his religion has few vital and necessary doc- 
trines. In one way it challenges man's largest 
and endless study; in another way the simplest 
mind may learn its lessons. The life of Jesus, 
predominantly realistic, perhaps just because 
of that, reaches over in a multitude of impli- 
cations into the larger or divine life. I, for 
one, like to think of Jesus in this paradoxical 
sense — on the one hand having the simplest 
message for children and peasant minds to un- 
derstand, and on the other reaching far out 
into life's greatest mysteries, challenging the 
loftiest minds and noblest hearts. It is per- 
haps because our own personalities are con- 
structed that way ; we have a sense of the 
natural and also a sense of the supernatural. 
We have a sense of transient values and a 
sense of permanent values. 
21 



22 MODERNIST STUDIES 

The supernatural implications in the life of 
Jesus, which constrain us to venerate him, are 
perhaps best made known through the teach- 
ings of the incarnation. Having accepted the 
moral grandeur of the life of Jesus, it is diffi- 
cult to see how one could steer clear of some 
such summary of his life, answering, as it 
does, at the same time an instinctive need of 
the human heart. 

Once, indeed, Jesus seemed to disparage his 
own place : " Call not me good, for there is 
none good save God." But in all other places 
we run into words of surprising authority. 
One of the first observations was that he spoke 
not as the Scribes, but as one having author- 
ity. The ego in Jesus either militates against 
his moral grandeur, or it becomes at once an 
implication of unique authority, and fascinat- 
ing hope — that after all God has been in our 
midst. 

There is an interesting phase of this prob- 
lem in the possibility of such a revelation. Of 
course the man who upon a priori grounds does 
not believe it possible for God to reveal him- 
self in this distinct and unique way, is not pre- 
pared to believe it — even though it be true. 
However, he who knows what God can and 
cannot do must be very wise. 

Here we are in the midst of life's problems. 
We are full of questions and doubts and — 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 23 

premonitions. There are many things we 
would like to know; there are some things we 
feel we must know or die. And we ask our- 
selves : " Is it possible for God to reveal him- 
self to us in and through personality? He 
who does not believe it must almost surely do 
two things : First, he must dogmatize a great 
deal about the power of God; in a way he 
must arrogate to himself the ability to mark 
the limits of the Infinite according to his own 
limited or arbitrary vision. Second, he must 
accept life as a fragment, with its morning, its 
afternoon, its night. He must see conscious- 
ness dawn, grow into intelligence and — per- 
ish. He must place his friends and loved ones 
in the grave, and know them ever afterward 
only in memory, perhaps in the flowers, the 
grass, and the air. Is it possible that God 
should reveal more than this? 

Does God reveal himself in the grass and the 
flowers? Yes. But no revelation in the grass 
and the flowers can ever satisfy the human 
consciousness and intelligence. Does God re- 
veal himself in the stars? We think of the in- 
scription on the tomb of Mrs. John A. 
Brashear, written by her astronomer hus- 
band, " We have loved the stars too much to 
be afraid of the night, " and we reverently 
answer, " Yes. " But even that far-away reve- 
lation could hardly be expected to satisfy a 



24 MODERNIST STUDIES 

human soul unless complemented by other ele- 
ments. Does God reveal himself in brute life? 
Yes. But such can never complement man's 
spiritual needs, the great outreachings and in- 
sistent aspirations. The Chrisitian religion, 
therefore, following the manifest needs of 
human life, accepts the assumption of Jesus 
and insists that what is everywhere else true 
must also be true in the highest realm of God's 
expressed life — that of personality. 

In what, then, shall the revelation consist? 
How shall God reveal himself that we may 
most easily comprehend his message? We 
answer — through a person ; through one who 
was tempted in all points like as we are, who 
was anhungered, who wept, who laughed, who 
was strong while yet tempted. If God should 
ask me today how best he could make himself 
known to me, I would say — through a per- 
son who, coming into my actual environment, 
would show me the way to live. The possibility 
thus transforms itself into a probability. 

Nor am I unaware of the other side of the 
problem. Men carried away with the really fine 
idea of Divine Immanence — that God is in 
everything — men who sense a cosmic super- 
naturalism, cannot understand how a true 
revelation should come through a man limited 
and tempted as we are. Of course God is in 
everything. His purposes are eternal and 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 25 

through all. There is a reason even for the ex- 
istence of evil, without the postulate of a per- 
sonal devil. But mark this : man's need of a 
revelation has nothing to do with Divine Im- 
manence. His revelation must come to him 
through his own nature, and answer to his 
own need here and now. So we must not ex- 
pect Jesus to be a tree, a cloud, a planet, a 
sparrow, just to show us that he is immanent in 
everything. We know God is in everything 
without a revelation. Power is one of the first 
aspects we glimpse in the life of God. So the 
revelation of God in Jesus has no direct bear- 
ing on many things — science, philosophy, in- 
vention, farming. True, he has inspired and 
led these studies in an incidental way. But 
those things we are to learn for ourselves. 
Jesus concerned himself with the deeper needs 
and question of man's eternal progress and 
life. Nor did Jesus come to tell us every- 
thing. He would not tell his disciples all he 
knew. He gave the vital tendencies, the eter- 
nal principles, the moral energies, which are 
so simple. With Newman, Jesus would have 
every follower of his say: 

" I do not ask to see the distant scene; 
One step enough for me." 

The final test, however, is rational and 
moral. As challenging as the possibility is, 



26 MODERNIST STUDIES 

and as instinctive as the need seems to be 
— the natural complement of all that we 
are — a choice must be made, and the choice 
is left to us. To whom shall we go? Where 
shall we find this man, God's man — yea, in a 
vital sense Deity himself? That is a moment- 
ous choice. You perhaps remember the 
story of the French atheist who, knowing the 
vital place of this question, asked the Car- 
dinal : " If you ever found another man as 
good as Jesus, what would you do? " And the 
Cardinal replied, " I would worship him. " 
The choice takes in moral grandeur as a final 
test. There was the discerning doubter who 
was asked : " Provided there is a God, and an- 
other life, if a man should live according to the 
spirit and precepts of Jesus, do you think he 
would inherit eternal life?" and who promptly 
answered in the affirmative. It is doubtful if 
a more fundamental question was ever asked, 
or a more satisfactory answer given. In this 
direction lies the quest and the decision. 

The incarnation is not, as some suppose, an 
abstract dogma, or theory of life; nor does it 
assume to solve all difficulties. The incarna- 
tion has almost infinite ramifications, but pri- 
marily it is God revealing himself through a 
babe, a young boy, and a man. It is God in 
humanity speaking to humanity. And that is 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 27 

not so strange a thing after all. There are 
some who are afraid of what they call an " an- 
thropomorphic " God — that is, a God who is 
no more than a man. That is the scare that 
dogmatists on the one hand, and free thinkers 
on the other, throw into the arena of dis- 
cussion. The dogmatist says you must have a 
Deity above and separated (holy) from hu- 
manity ; and so he constructs a God away off 
yonder who only reveals himself through some 
special heirarchy or body of doctrines. The 
free-thinker frankly says that he will never 
worship a man, that if he ever worships any- 
thing it will be God, pure and simple. And, 
very naturally, since there can be no such God, 
nor would he be understandable if he did exist, 
the free-thinker finds himself where perhaps 
philosophically he wants to be, i. e. without 
any practical demands from religion. 

In the light of such alternatives, historic 
Christianity is frankly anthropomorphic. It 
says that man is God's best gift to man, and 
that in all ages, through prophets and priests 
and now in a special gift of himself, he still 
through man reveals man to himself. The 
creed does not hesitate to say, " He was born 
of the Virgin Mary," " He was made man," 
" He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, " 
" He was dead and buried. " It says much 



28 MODERNIST STUDIES 

more than this, of course, and reaches over in 
to the very essence of the divine life, but the 
revelation is human after all. 

And from what I am able to learn it is a 
position that can be upheld along the most ap- 
proved lines of reasoning. For instance, 
there is a narrow sphere which sets man off 
from everything else in the world — and that 
is the sphere of his own personality : his ability 
to know himself and others, with affection, 
faith, loyalty, and other well known functions. 
It is what your little child has, and your sew- 
ing machine and automobile do not have. It 
is that which in her you love here, and wish to 
see persist after the frail body goes back to 
ashes. Everything else clusters around that 
functioning. It is the divine element in hu- 
manity, and so far as we know exists alone in 
mankind. 

Now the approach to this personality is also 
narrow. It is limited on two sides. First, 
nature can teach it little or nothing, because 
nature is of a lower order. If Robinson Cru- 
soe had lived long enough on the island, he 
perchance would have gone mad. All the 
beautiful nature about him would have meant 
little or nothing to him without humanity 
about him. And those who talk a lot about 
the " inspiration of nature " as taking the 
place of religious inspiration ought to have to 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 29 

live like Crusoe, on a beautiful island — alone. 
I feel sure that when they came back after a 
few months it would be with a rearranged the- 
ology! The inspiration of nature is aesthetic 
rather than religious. The lessons are all on 
a distinctly lower plane. 

Then the approach is limited on the super- 
natural side, just as on the natural side. 
Miracles as such have very little value for the 
satisfaction of personality. It is often harder 
to understand the miracle than the lesson it is 
supposed to teach. Jesus himself places them 
on a distinctly lower plane : " They have Moses 
and the prophets, and if they will not believe 
them, they will not believe even though one 
rose from the dead. " 

The avenue of approach to our highest na- 
tures is, after all, through humanity. And 
that is exactly what we find in the religion of 
Jesus. When God wished to reveal himself in 
an adequate way to his children he humbled 
himself, was born of a virgin, and became a 
man, and dwelt among us, and was tempted in 
all points like as we are. There is, then, 
nothing strange, but something infinitely re- 
freshing, in the idea of the Incarnation. 



PITFALLS 

As a free-will carries with it attendant dan- 
gers, so the very possibility of living the larg- 
est kind of a life, in the religion of Jesus, in 
a liberal faith, has accompanying pitfalls. 
Those dangers are that it may mistake liberty 
for license ; that it may be too tolerant ; that 
it is apt to be hesitant and afraid. There is 
a liberty that leadeth unto life, and there is 
a liberty that leadeth unto death. 

But there are so many things to be believed, 
there are so many things for which we may 
stand positively, there are so many restraints 
that lead to dynamic power, that the man who 
pities himself either for lack of truth in the 
world or for something to strive for, has only 
himself to blame. He who can live in a world 
of light and joy with only blackness in his 
heart has somehow lost his way. 



30 



CHAPTER V 
JESUS AS THE FULFILLER 

" I am come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the 
law." — Jesus. 

Thus Jesus put himself in contact with the 
conditions of his own times. He brought no 
cataclysmic cure-alh He was radical — as 
radical as love; he was constantly surprising; 
he sometimes seemed to his own people blas- 
phemous. Yet he must be judged largely by 
his own estimate of his aims, and that estimate 
was one of the Fulfiller. He went himself, and 
advised his followers to attend the Synagogue. 
He sent some to the priest. He was not an 
iconoclast. He created no new religion, either 
in an institutional or doctrinal sense. He 
wrote no sacred book, like Mohammed or Joseph 
Smith or Mrs. Eddy. He did not even com- 
mit to writing his own sayings, like Con- 
fucius. He completed no hierarchy. To 
plant his feet upon he took the historical back- 
ground, such as it was ; it might conceivably 
have been something very different. 

The interesting point for us of this day is 
31 



32 MODERNIST STUDIES 

that his principle was one of fulfillment. His 
face was always toward the future. His work 
was always the work of today. He then found 
the point of contact. And may that not mark 
the new way for us? Long since any arbi- 
trary schemes we may have had have failed. 
Any titles we may have conferred on Jesus are 
but temporary, and in time they are apt to 
give more trouble than help, even that one 
which was added earliest of all (Jesus "Christ" 
— Jewish Messiah). Jesus hesitated to take 
this title. Different titles have served in dif- 
ferent ages, even as it is. What Jesus has 
meant to various ages may give us a glimpse 
of what he may mean to us and to the future. 
Let us see. 

The highest thought of Judaism was Mes- 
sianism. It was a variable quantity, but al- 
ways embracing the hope that God would in- 
carnate himself and dwell with men. With the 
Jews it was always more or less anthropomor- 
phic, always more or less nationalistic. Jesus 
was more, of course, than the Messiah of the 
Jews, and he did not pretend to identify him- 
self in every particular with their Mis&sianism. 
He replied to them once when they asked him: 
"Thou hast said." And anyone may discern 
how he magnified the Messianism they held, and 
spiritualized it. But his Jewish disciples (for 
all the early disciples were Jews) at once iden- 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 33 

tified him with the highest message of Jewish 
life and philosophy. And he, at last, per- 
mitted it. Was he justified? Certainly. He 
fulfilled it, spiritualized it, galvanized it into 
life. This is evident when we remember that 
since his day Jewish Messianism has never 
meant anything except as it has persisted in 
him — an exceptional tribute and leadership. 
But the permanent message of Messianism may 
not mean much to us; it may, indeed, be a 
stumbling block unless understood in historic 
perspective. Jesus is the Messiah of the Jew 
— and very much more. 

The noblest doctrine of the Greeks was the 
Logos, or eternal wisdom. The effort of 
Greek culture was to make a man so wise that 
he would live accordingly. It was and is a 
really great doctrine. The finest moral in- 
sight in all ancient philosophy is to be found 
in the Greeks such as Socrates, Plato, and 
Zeno. St. John at once identifies Jesus with 
this Logos : " In the beginning was the word 
(the Logos) and the word was with God, and 
the word was God — and the word became 

FEESH AND DWELT AMONG US." JeSUS Was 

more than the Logos of the Greeks ; he was 
its fulfieeer also, enriching it with his own 
unique personality. St. Paul makes contact 
with their god whom unknowingly they wor- 
shipped, complementing it with the Christian 



34 MODERNIST STUDIES 

message. It is worthy of note that it never 
meant anything to the world as a separate 
philosophy after Jesus came into contact with 
it. It was literally swallowed up in the beau- 
tiful spirit of his empiricism. 

The next great effort of humanity was mon- 
asticism. It is unfortunate that we only know 
the latter end of monasticism, when it was 
anemic, if not actually sluggish and vile. In 
its first efforts it was dynamic with the spirit 
of re-invigoration. Whatever of the old civ- 
ilization there was had largely gone to pieces, 
and the impact of the new barbarians from the 
north made a pitiful thing to call civilization. 
It was rather a job-lot or a pot-pourri. 
There were two great needs — education and 
the spread of goodness. The brutality of the 
north, with its great, unused energies, needed 
to be soothed and made human and merciful. 
The ignorance everywhere needed to be scat- 
tered. Charlemagne could not read nor write. 
The monks banded themselves together, and 
took up the prodigious tasks of humanity. 
They preserved old manuscripts and made 
new ones. They taught the children, such as 
they could gather about the schools. They 
preached righteousness and tamed the fol- 
lowers of Attila and Genseric. We may say 
what we will about later monasticism; in its 
early efforts it was perhaps the only kind of 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 35 

method which could have faced so overmaster- 
ing a problem. And who, pray you, was the 
central figure in that effort? Where did it 
find its inspiration? Around what pagan 
philosopher did it gather its formulas? There 
is only one figure in monasticism — the suffer- 
ing Saviour of mankind. Jesus was to them 
neither the Messiah nor the Logos primarily, 
but the suffering Saviour, acquainted with 
grief and merciful. In this period of regen- 
eration he was the Big Brother. 

Justin Martyr retains a high estimate of his 
Greek friends after his conversion, by persuad- 
ing himself that Heraclitus, Socrates, and 
many Stoics were virtually Christians since 
they had been enlightened by the Logos, later 
to be more perfectly revealed in the person of 
Jesus. So Dante places Virgil and many 
other pagans in Purgatory, some of them with 
higher places than popes and prelates. St. 
Paul dares to place Jesus in unison not only 
with Messianism, but with the highest and best 
things and persons : " For all things are yours, 
whether . . . the world, or life, or death, 
or things present or things to come: all are 
yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 

And in this these leaders of early Chris- 
tianity were entirely correct: Jesus is more 
than a deified man, more than the Messiah of 
the Jews, or the Logos of the Greeks, or the 



36 MODERNIST STUDIES 

dogmas of the Church; he is the eternal 
struggle for good. Once Lanfranc related to 
Anselm, Abbot of Bee, the story of the death 
of St. Alphege, an English Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, who was killed by the Danes. They 
had offered to spare his life if they were paid 
a ransom. He rejected the offer because he 
knew he would have to take the money from 
the poor of his diocese. Lanfranc said that 
Alphege ought not to be called a saint and a 
martyr, for he had not died for Christ. 
" But, " replied Anselm, " to die for righteous- 
ness is to die for Christ. " 

This understanding of Jesus opens up tre- 
mendously interesting questions. Are we jus- 
tified in exercising the wonderful eclecticism 
that Jesus himself lived by? For many cen- 
turies his message has been wrapped up with 
such terms as Messiah (Christ), Lord, King, 
Saviour, Logos, Son of God — all of which 
are, after all, local and historical expressions, 
growing out of the soil of language and ex- 
perience. If Socialism should mould into the 
language of the world the word " comrade, " 
would it be possible for us to say " Jesus, the 
Comrade, " as we now say Jesus, the Christ? 
Why not? 

The word " comrade " has implications never 
dreamed of in Messianism? It is universal, 
personal, compassionate, loving, constructive. 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 37 

It seems, indeed, to be in line with the thought 
of Jesus : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself. " " Go and sell that thou hast, and 
give to the poor. " It fits in with the message 
as understood by the early disciples, when they 
brought all that they had and laid it at the 
apostles' feet. And while Jesus hesitatingly 
accepted the Messianic role, and all other doc- 
trines are clearly deductions, he never hesi- 
tated to be the " comrade " ; "A new com- 
mandment I give unto you, that ye love one an- 
other, even as I have loved you." Shall Jesus 
still be wrapped in the swaddling clothes of the 
ages? We hear of him now only under terms 
ancient, medieval, and feudalistic. Shall we 
thus think of him only, or as the Fulfiller? 
The first seems to put him in line with the other 
merely human founders of historic religions ; 
the latter to give him his rightful place in the 
Divine Order of Life. 

Thus fascinating implications arise around 
the person of Jesus. He himself becomes 
more than the deification of a man; he is the 
synthesis of all God's works. He is more than 
Dionysius, who theoretically rises from the 
dead; he is the resurrection and the life. His 
name is no mere talisman ; " to die for right- 
eousness " is, as St. Anselm says, " to die for 
Christ. " He is more than any theory of wis- 
dom either Jew or Greek; he is the Way, the 



38 MODERNIST STUDIES 

Truth, and the Life. Thus he manifests him- 
self today in mind and medicine, in tree and 
herb, in intellect and affection ; in him all 
things become ours ; whether the world, or life, 
or death, or things to come, all are ours and 
we through him are God's. 

And for our destiny the implications are no 
less suggestive. All things become ours. We 
theocratize the world. It becomes our 
Father's house. Nature is his and wisdom is 
his; the projection of personality is his; the 
movements of virtue and affection are his, as 
they are God's. As God is back of all, so 
Jesus is in unison with and the inspiration of 
the great advances. Nor are we a thing 
apart. The world cannot be estimated with- 
out every individual — apart from you and 
me. The secret shortcoming which we thought 
our own, is not our own ; it is against God, 
against the world, against the cosmic order. 
The humble virtue of the peasant is an asset 
of all time and all things. So the true ad- 
vancements of science and agriculture and 
domesticity, as well as of morality and belief, 
are things through which we may glorify God 
and find our place in the Eternal Order. 

Jesus is the radical of all the ages. He is 
the iconoclast of love. There is nothing more 
radical than love. It pursues its way without 
fear, and one could almost say without favor. 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 39 

It is the new wine which many times demands 
new bottles. Love is like the instinct of being 
born — pain and travail are its incidents ; life 
is its ultimate. Jesus is as radical as love and 
life. 



GOD PERSONAL 

Religion and life hinge upon a belief in a 
personal God. Divine Immanence, Pantheism, 
and Nirvana are all good, but they are only 
partial aspects of the life of God, and the lesser 
ones at that. The one tremendous and mo- 
mentous fact in the world is personality — the 
personality of man. Anything less than this, 
therefore, in any concept of God is unphiloso- 
phic, and eventually degrading to the human 
spirit. I know people who say that they do 
not worry over the future life. But they 
usually say that in the heyday and springtime 
of life, full to overflowing with the exuber- 
ance of the very personality whose value they 
so belittle after a few short years. 

What would you take for the personality of 
your little girl? Give her good health, the 
power of locomotion, everlasting existence, 
everything, except her knowledge of you and 
your knowledge of her? What would you 
take, and have that be the case? Nothing in 
all the world. If you believe in God, then, 
what is the least attribute in that picture? Is 
it not personality? 

40 



CHAPTER VI 

JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF 
TOMORROW 

" I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall 
be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find pas- 
ture. ... I am come that ye might have life, and that 
ye might have it more abundantly." — Jesus. 

When Henry Van Dyke delivered the 
Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale in 
eighteen hundred and ninety-five, he entitled 
them " The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. " 
It is a very difficult thing, admitted by all, to 
discern and describe adequately the spirit of 
any generation. Dr. Van Dyke was perhaps 
correct in the use of the term " An Age of 
Doubt " as describing a certain transient phase 
of our development. At any rate there has 
been a perceptible change since eighteen hundred 
and ninety-five, and our age might be more 
properly described as " An Age of Belief." 
Not that men have come to accept dogma in 
its medieval or even eighteenth century sense. 
But men today, while keenly inquisitive, are 
reverent and constructive thinkers. Many 
things, indeed, which have continued to exist 



42 MODERNIST STUDIES 

apparently only because they were old, are be- 
ing discarded, but the outlook everywhere is 
constructive, intelligent, and consonant with 
the highest abilities of men and the noblest 
processes of the divine Life. It is indeed an 
outlook that is a Vision. 

Presented with a dilemma of Rationalism or 
Vision we must, of course, choose the Vision. 
Vision has within itself all those divine instincts 
that have brought Reason into play in our 
lives, and the Vision can never be lost except 
at the price of a weakened Rationality itself. 
But the present age does not see any dilemma 
at all. Reason must ever be led by Vision, and 
Vision in turn must be buttressed in the sure 
things of increasing knowledge. 

The heart of our present attitude is to be 
found in an ancient formula yvw#e a-eavrov (know 
thyself) — a vision which the Greek glimpsed, 
but never came into himself. It was Pope, I 
think, who said, " the proper study of mankind 
is man." When Jesus said, " Ye shall know 
the truth, and the truth shall make you free," 
he was forced to modify it and make it prac- 
tical and personal by saying, " I am the Way, 
the Truth, and the Life." Real knowledge is 
personal, intimate, inquisitive, casting the beam 
from its own eye before it can see clearly to 
take the moat out its brother's eye. This is 
an age, I do not think it too much to say, that 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 43 

is coming to know itself. This is an age, we 
cannot say, that has found, but is finding itself. 

Jesus is bound to mean more to this age in 
which we are living than in any other preceding 
age. I hope I may say that without any sense 
of self-complacency. The nexus is this new 
knowledge and attitude that we have gathered 
up in ourselves. Jesus is reported to have 
come into the world in the " fullness of time." 
It is a pragmatic fact that he does not now 
come into the world until in some sort of 
fashion we are prepared to receive him. The 
corollary is also true — that every age sees 
Jesus with its own " specs." Truth is an ever- 
existant and complete entity, but our appre- 
hension of truth is a variant, depending on our 
culture, using culture in its widest sense. So 
Jesus stands, the Ideal, the Vision, the Dream 
of all who love and hope, but our apprehension 
of him is measured by the " thing we are." 

Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that I 
do not think our age has reached millennial per- 
fection. I am not one of those who join in 
deifying the Crowd. I want to register what 
we are, and look at Jesus as we may be privi- 
leged to see him in that new light. Neverthe- 
less I do stand sponsor for this age as the best 
age, this year as the best year, and this hour 
as the best hour of all the ages and years and 
hours that have passed. 



44 MODERNIST STUDIES 

In view of this I want to say that the religion 
which is ours today, and which is more and 
more to be the religion of the coming years, is 
a religion which may be described as an up- 
standing religion. It was foreshadowed in 
these words of our text and many others of 
Jesus, especially in his later life. The thought 
behind it and through it was that of the abund- 
ant life — natural and abundant : " If any man 
shall enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in 
and out, and shall find pasture . 
I am come that ye might have life and that 
ye might have it more abundantly." 

I know that there is a cheap sort of piety, 
a sort of self-disclosure and self-humiliation, 
which is abhorent to all of us. But it does 
seem to me that we should hold our religious 
faith with at least as much vigor and frankness 
as we do, for instance, our political faith. 
Here are a man and his wife celebrating their 
golden wedding anniversary. When you go 
into their home, though age is coming on, they 
beam with joy. They show you the old pic- 
tures — the farm where they were born, their 
first modest house; they get down the photo- 
graphs of their children, and tell the accom- 
plishments of each. They are not ashamed of 
what they have done; the abundant nature of 
their lives is written in their faces. And what 
we know is that back of it all there was work, 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 45 

and care, and doubt, and ambition, and culture, 
and enlightenment. Nor should it be other- 
wise with religion. Religion is what we are — 
more even than the measure of a golden wed- 
ding anniversary. It is worthy of ambitious 
and clear-sighted effort. Patience and humil- 
ity are absolutely evil unless linked with vigor 
and knowledge and direction. It was Jesus 
who said, M The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto 
a man seeking goodly pearls (the good life is a 
pearl) and having found one of great price, he 
went and sold all that he had and bought it." 
It was so good that a man would be justified 
in seeking it with all the zest of a merchant of 
gems ; it was as fascinating not only as a trade 
or profession, but as the romance of priceless 
jewels. It was a worthy and justifiable and 
manly thing. 

It is a pity that there are a good many men 
in the Church today who, if Jesus were on 
earth, would counsel him to go a little more 
slowly ! Jesus himself was the most upstand- 
ing of men. You cannot imagine him as being 
afraid of anybody or anything. Kind and con- 
siderate? Yes. But unafraid. His step was 
almost — gay* His touch was as light as a 
child's caress. His spirit was rich and whole- 
some and forward-looking. In a word, and 
this is an interesting fact when you come to 
think about it, Jesus acknowledged no sense of 



46 MODERNIST STUDIES 

sm m himself. We may even accept the tradi- 
tional explanation that Jesus was different, but 
it nevertheless follows that one of the best ways 
to ruin the efficiency of the religious life is to 
dwell on the sinfulness of our human nature, or 
to affect a theological humiliation which is me- 
chanical in the very nature of the occasion and 
the life we are living. May it not be that the 
thing for us to do is not to worry over our sins, 
but to pray for some of the confidence of Jesus. 
In line with this, the religion of our age will 
be inclusive and comprehensive. Edwin Mark- 
ham has a fine figure which symbolizes what I 
have in mind: 

" He drew a circle that left me out — 
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. 
But love and I had the wit to win ; 
We drew a circle that took him in." 

Every circle is imaginary except the circle 
that includes all humanity and total reality. 
Thus the ancients used a circle to denote God. 
This is shown by the wholesomeness of some of 
our practical efforts. We are beginning to see 
this in our prison work. We used to think it 
enough if we put men behind the bars. We 
cut their hair, put a striped suit on them, and 
humiliated them by locksteps and other in- 
genious indignities — only to find that, in the 
end, when they got out, they were a thousand 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 47 

times more the children of darkness than when 
we put them in; and the community suffered. 
What we are finding out is that we must include 
them in a very vital way in the total scheme of 
redemption, and that the long, long way of lov- 
ing purpose only can win. We agree with Her- 
bert Spencer when he says, " No one can be per- 
fectly free till all are free. No one can be per- 
fectly moral till all are moral. No one can 
be perfectly happy till all are happy." 

I think that you may have guessed that the 
kind of inclusiveness of which I speak is not re- 
lated to a mere spirit of toleration. In fact I 
think it would be intolerant of many tilings. 
You may have heard of the man who spread 
himself out so much that he was pretty thin 
everywhere! It isn't that kind of inclusive- 
ness. It is a matter only for constructive work 
and loyal men. 

There are in fact just two approaches to 
every problem : one is partial, immediate, short- 
sighted, authoritative ; the other is long-drawn- 
out, cooperative, entailing much consideration, 
demanding faith in its highest sense. Under 
the former, master and slave is a good arrange- 
ment of human society rather than long drawn- 
out labor and capital contests ; paternalism in 
government is better than the everlasting 
struggles of democracy ; war is better than di- 
plomacy and arbitration. It makes great use 



48 MODERNIST STUDIES 

of fear, and asks for immediate results. It 
lacks faith in human nature, and is superficial 
in its thinking. It has about it all the ear- 
marks of the self-sufficient, comfort -loving, dog- 
in-the-manger attitude of some fathers we re- 
member with instinctive affection, but from 
whose roof-trees we were mighty glad to escape. 
It regards humanity as a perpetual child. It 
gilds itself with a good many platitudes, while 
stifling the free spirit and self-development of 
the individual. It tells the master to be 
" good " to the slave, and tells the child that 
the whipping hurts the father a good deal 
more than the child, which we perhaps all have 
heard and had our doubts about ! It is full of 
all casuistry and pious dissimulation, side- 
stepping the real issue, which is the free and 
full-rounded development of the individual 
spirit in cooperation with all other free spirits. 

The second approach is only for brave men 
and men of faith. Nearly all the sins we know 
have grown out of the great sin — lack of 
faith; faith in ourselves, faith in our fellows, 
and, ultimately, faith in God. There are no 
short cuts to character, and Christianity is 
character plus — character in the light of the 
long, patient, inclusive purposes of God. 

Even at that, the second approach is more 
satisfactory in the end. The swimmer jumps 
off into the cold water, and at first he feels the 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 49 

chill, and all the good things he has ever heard 
about swimming drop to zero. But after a few 
healthy strokes his body reacts, a warm glow 
suffuses his body, and off he moves in an ecstacy 
of delight. What we need most of all in our 
religion is the will to jump off, to trust our- 
selves, that we have the power to re-act — what 
someone has called " the will to believe." Any 
one can learn the strokes. 

And just because we have had so little faith in 
ourselves, we have little faith in each other; 
and then, to paraphrase the words of Jesus, if 
we do not believe in ourselves and each other, 
whom we have seen, how shall we believe in God, 
whom we have not seen? Jesus believed this 
and taught it as no other man ever did. He 
saw in every man the germ divine: 

" For why should I pronounce his doom, 
When in my brother's heart may bloom 
The eternal flower ? " 

And, finally, our religion will be forward- 
moving, instinct with the finest sensibilities. 
The genuineness of Jesus is to be found 
just here, in its leading processes. There are 
three standards of life — and perhaps not an- 
other. First, law. It is the minimum. It is 
the swaddling clothes in which cooperative soci- 
ety begins its walk together. It deals only 



50 MODERNIST STUDIES 

with outstanding crudities and criminalities. 
It is negative and provides penalties. 

Then there is morality. The word morality 
comes from mos, meaning custom, the plural of 
which is mores. It consists of the little nice- 
ties that people do over and above the law. 
But it always remains largely a matter of 
courtesy or nicety ; it has in it no grand pas- 
sion. Whatever is customary is right. If it 
were customary for every second father to cut 
off the toe of every male child, in obeying that 
habit a man would be moral. Where polygamy 
is the custom, a plurality of wives would be en- 
tirely moral. It is to be said, however, that the 
general rule of morality is something higher 
and better than law. 

Above this, of course, is the realm of re- 
ligion. It comprehends our ideal and aspira- 
tions. It is filial in symbol, the picture in 
Christianity being that of a good father and 
a good son. It assumes that there is " one 
divine event toward which the whole creation 
moves," and it believes in the capacity of men 
to achieve goodness, and that the proper in- 
stincts are naturally resident within us. It has 
no penalties except the long penalties of life 
and character. Religion, in a word, is made 
up of the directing forces of life, and its place 
is never at the tag-end of the procession. It is 
clearly not enough that the product of religion 



IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 51 

should be the same from year to year, genera- 
tion to generation, century to century. Re- 
ligion has to do with the everlasting evolution 
and development of human life. Nothing less 
than real progress will suffice. 

In the best sense in which religion is known, 
Jesus is its epitome. His moral grandeur, his 
beautiful spirituality, his dauntless courage, his 
forward moving step, his sure apprehension of 
life in its underlying realities, his love of life, 
all are unmistakable signs of his leadership. 
And unto himself he calls us. 



A LIBERAL FAITH 

A liberal faith is a great faith ; it constantly, 
like the chick, breaks the old shell, and walks 
into new life. But, mind you, it takes the es- 
sence of the old life with it, leaving only the 
shell. A truly liberal faith leaves nothing of 
any value behind. It is not some mere tangent, 
a starting point, a divergence that means an- 
other sect. " These things you ought to have 
done," said Jesus, " and not to have left the 
other undone." A man who calls himself a 
liberal and slinks back out of sight in the face 
of some crisis, is not a liberal ; he is only a 
coward. A man who calls himself a liberal and 
lives an openly bad life, is not a liberal ; he is 
only a libertine. If a man calls himself a lib- 
eral and you can only tell that he is by the 
number of things he does not believe, he is not 
a liberal ; he is only a doubter. A liberal is one 
whose blood is growing warmer, whose charity 
is growing broader, whose vision is growing 
clearer; who, in the last analysis, is deeply in 
love with life. 



52 



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